Note that you can find the examiners' reports on the AQA website - packed full of useful advice on what they gave top grades for. Read them!

1. What do you find interesting about the ways that Guterson tells the story of Carl Heine's death?

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2. Using the following passage as a starting point, consider the ways Guterson presents the relationship between Ishmael and Hatsue in the whole novel.

Ishmael Chambers was out walking aimlessly in the snow, admiring it and remembering. The trial of Kabuo Miyamoto had brought that world back for him. Inside their cedar tree, for nearly four years, he and Hatsue had held one another with the dreamy contentedness of young lovers. With their coats spread against a cushion of moss they'd stayed as long as they could after dusk and on Saturday and Sunday afternoons. The tree produced a cedar perfilme that permeated their skin and clothes. They would enter, breathe deeply, then lie down and touch each other - the heat of it and the cedar smell, the privacy and the rain outside, the slippery softness of their lips and tongues inspired in them the temporary illusion that the rest of the world had disappeared; there was nobody and nothing but the two of them.
3. How does Guterson present distrust of the Japanese in the novel? You may refer to two or three episodes if you wish, or range more widely through the novel.


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4. Well, thought Ishmael, bending over his typewriter, his fingertips poised just above the keys: the palpitations of Kabuo Miyamoto's heart were unknowable finally. And Hatsue's heart wasn't knowable, either, nor was Carl Heine's. The heart of any other, because it had a will, would remain forever mysterious. Ishmael gave himself to the writing of it, and as he did so he understood this, too: that accident ruled every corner of the universe except the chambers of the human heart."
Here are the last few sentences of the novel. In what ways is this an appropriate ending for the novel?

5. How does the writer use weather and setting in the novel?

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6. Consider the way the writer presents the character of Kabuo in the novel.

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7. Explore the ways in which Guterson presents women characters in the novel (Jan 2003 - look up the examiners' report and see what they gave high grades for on this question!)

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8. Using the following extract as a starting point, explore Guterson's presentation of the community's hostility towards the Japanese.
But then Nels dropped the anila folder on the mattress, dropped it and stood directly over him. 'It's because you're from Japanese folks,' he said softly; it was more a question than a statement. 'You figure because you're from Japanese folks nobody will believe you anyway.'
'I've got a right to think that way. Or maybe you've forgotten that a few y;ears back the government decided it couldn't trust any of us and shipped us out of here.'
'That's true,' said Nels. 'But -'
'We're sly and treacherous,'Kabuo said. 'You can't trust a Jap, can you? This island's full of strong feelings, Mr Gudmundsson, people who don't often speak their minds but hate on the inside all the same. They don't buy their berries from our farms, they won't do business with us. You remember when somebody piched rocks through all the windows at Sumida's greenhouses last summer/ Well, now there's a fisherman everybody like dwell enough who's dead and drowned in his net.' (Jan 2003)

9. What do you find interesting about the ways that Guterson tells the story of Carl Heine's death?

OR

10. Using the following passage a s a starting point, consider the ways Guterson presents the relationship between Ishmael and Hatsue in the whole novel.
Ishmael Chambers was out walking aimlessly in the snow, admiring it and remembering. The trial of Kabuo Miyamoto had brought that world back for him.

Inside their cedar tree, for nearly four years, he and Hatsue had held one another with the dreamy contentedness of young lovers. With their coatss spread against a cushion of moss they'd stayed as lo;ng as they could after dusk and on Saturday and Sunday afternoons. The tree produced a cedar perfume that permeated their skin and clothes. They would enter, breathe deeply, then lie down and touch each other - the heat of it and the cedar smell, the privacy and the rain outside, the slippery sortness of their lips and tongues inspired in them the temporary illusion that the rest of the world had disappeared; there was nobody and nothing but the two of them.

11. Explore the ways Guterson presents the characer Hatsue in the novel. (May 2002)

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12. Using the following extract as a starting point, write about the ways the writer uses the weather and the environment in the novel.

The storm winds battered the courtroom windows and rattled them in their csaement s so vigorously it seemed the glass would break. For three days and nights the citizens in the gallery had listened to the wind beat against their houses and echo violently inside their ears a they struggled against it to make their way to and from the courthouse. They had not at all grown accustomed to it. They were habituated to the sea winds that blew across the island each spring when the mud was up and the rain fell steadily, but a wind of this magnitude, so frigid and elemental, remained foreign to them. It seemed improbable that a wind should blow so consistently for days on end. Ir made them irritable and impatient. The snow was one thing, falling as it did , but the whine of the storm, the stinging force of it against their faces - everyone wished unconsciously that it wuld come to an end and grant them peace. They were tired of listening to it. (May 2002)

13. Consider the ways Guterson explores the themes of forgiveness and tolerance in the novel. (May 2003 Click here for the Examiners' Report)

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14. The extract describes the moment that the young Hatsue ends her relationship with Ishmael. Consider the ways Guterson presents this relationship throughout the novel.

When she finally did leave it was well past dusk, and she walked o ut of the woods and into the open with the intention of not looking back again.But after ten steps sshe did so despite herself - it was too hard not to turn around. It was in her to say good-bye forever and tell him she would never see him again , to explain to him that she'd chosen to part because in his arms she felt unwhole. But she didn't say it, that they had been too young, that they had not seen clearly, that they haad allowed the forest and the beach to sweep them up, that all of it had been delusion alll along, that she had not been who she was. Instead, ;un blinking, she looked at him, unable to hurt him in the way that was demanded and in some undefined way still loving what he was, his kindness, his seriousness, the goodness in his heart. He stood there, Ishmael, looking at her desperately, and that was the way she would remember him. Twelve years later she sould still see him this way, standing at the edge of the strawberry fields beneath the cover of the silent cedars, a handsome boy with one arm outstretched, beckoning her to come back.

15. Explore the ways Guterson presents the theme of desire in the novel. (Jan 2004)

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16. Remind yourself of the following estract where Kabuo has paid a visit to Carl to request that he sell him seven acres. Using the passage as a starting point, explore the ways Guterson presents the relationship between Kabuo and Carl in the novel

'Supposing you sell him his seven acres,' Susan Maie said. 'What's the worst your mother can do?'
Carl shook his head emphatically. 'It doesn't really come down to her,'he said. 'It comes down to the fact that Kabuo's a Jap. And I don't hate Japs, but I don't like 'em neither. It's hard to explain. But he's a Jap.'
'He's not a Jap,' susan Marie said. 'You don't mean that,Carl. I've heard you say nice things about him. You and he were friends.'
'Were,'said Carl. 'That's right.A long time ago. Before the war came along. But now I don't like him much anymore. Don't like how he acted when I told him I'd think it over, like he expected me to just hand those seven acres to him, like I owed it to him or -'
(Jan 2004)